Lisa Leturno – Divergent & Bloom Exhibit

Where are you from and where do you live now?

I grew up in Collierville, TN, which is a suburb outside of Memphis. My dad is a metallurgical engineer, my mom is a bookkeeper, and my sister is a mechanical engineer. I am neither an engineer not a bookkeeper, though I do love rationality and some good critical analysis. I went to Collierville High School and was very involved in art during that time. I attended governor’s school for art, designed 2 Christmas cards for my school, and won a contest to do a large painting that was displayed in the airport. I was hoping to go to a private art college and had even been awarded scholarships to SCAD and the College for Creative Studies. Ultimately, both of those schools were too expensive and I came to good ole Knoxville instead! At the University of Tennessee, I studied advertising and quickly fell in love with the culture, people, and outdoors in Knoxville. I graduated from school in 2015 and have happily been here since.

 What types of art have you done in the past and what are you currently working on today?

In the past, I’ve worked a lot with mixed media. I love to glue craft supplies, old drawings, and random objects I find onto my painting surfaces. For example, I’ve glued old jewelry and cut-up diet coke cans to canvases before. It guess you could say I’m a creative recycler. Growing up, I did wood working with my dad and we would create cutting boards, spoons, bowls, and other household items. Today, I use wood as a surface to make art on and get a kick out of incorporating my visual art with wood. Near the end of college, I was doing a lot of graphic design for my advertising classes and I wanted to incorporate these clean, neat shapes into my art. So I have some paintings from the past year that reflect a graphic style, but most recently I’ve been combining this with more painterly brushstrokes to create art that has a different quality of visual depth.

 What are some themes of your work that others will notice?

The art that I made at the beginning of college (2011-2013) was primarily about romantic relationships and breakups. At the time, I was myopically focused on meeting someone that I could marry and then felt totally crushed when each relationship ran its course. As I’ve gotten older, my art themes have shifted to friendship, self-discovery, and then whatever topics are interesting to me. One of my most recent series was about feminine power and black magic. It plays off the trope of the witch- a powerful, magical woman who is totally independent. Before I started this series, I asked my close girlfriends what images of women they find very powerful and then I incorporated their answers into paintings.

What inspires you and why?

My primary muses are my friends, family, and relationship with myself. I think relationships are one of the most profound parts of life. I am deeply inspired by fantasy and science fiction. I love works of art that captivate your mind and can take you to another place entirely. I go to a lot of music festivals and my imagination runs wild in the atmosphere there. I am totally enamored by not only the music, but also the LED lights, bright colors, intricate fashion, and weird people.   

What’s next for you and your art?

The next projects on my agenda are: 1) creating a commissioned painting of the Urban Wilderness for SoKno Cantina, which is opening up in South Knox in the next month and 2) I am working with a team at Okeechobee Music + Art festival to create murals and installations for the artist and VIP areas. Needless to say, I’m very excited about both. I’d love to bring my art to more places and people in Knoxville, so that’s what I’ll be cooking up in the meantime.

What’s the best thing about the Knoxville art community right now?

I love all the public art works in Knoxville that add character and uniqueness to our city. The advertising major in me sees other cities working to define what is special about them, which in turn makes them more distinct and creates a sense of local pride. I feel like this is very much happening in Knoxville right now and I think that art and design are perfect ways to set us apart from anywhere else. I hope I can contribute to making our city stand out.

 Which one is more you?

 Digital media vs. Old school media

I’m a little bit of both to be honest! I grew up with computers and taught myself how to use Corel Paint (similar to Photoshop) when I was in middle school. The process of creating layers and editing them informs how I paint. While I’d say I prefer old school media, both are very special to me.

Picasso vs. da Vinci

Da Vinci for sure. I love the image of the Renaissance man and polymath who excels in both art and engineering. I am also drawn to both creativity and analytical thinking, so he resonates with me quite a bit.

 Realism vs. Abstract

Again, I’m going to be difficult and say a little bit of both, though I definitely am closer to abstract. I prefer to do abstract backgrounds and then include some realistic depictions of usually people on the top layer.

Mountains vs. Lakes

Mountains all day, baby! That’s why I love living in East Tennessee so much. The mountains are a huge source of inspiration and peace for me.

Market Square vs. The Old City

Market Square! Pres Pub, and Scruffy City are my favorite places in Knoxville, hands down. Good beer, rooftops, and live music are hard to beat!

Coffee house vs. Pub

Depends on what time of day. I love K-Brew in the morning and the Pub at night. Seems logical to me 😉

Sunsphere vs. The Empire State Building

I haven’t been the Empire State Building, so I’m definitely biased towards the Sunsphere. I also think the Sunsphere is a little more architecturally weird and interesting, so that’s what I like!

Sam Artman – Divergent and Bloom Exhibit

Where are you from and where do you live now?
I am from South Knoxville and that’s where I once again live.

What types of art have you done in the past and what are you currently working on today?I have done several styles of art ranging from water colors to oil paints. I also build my own custom shaped canvas frames. I still make these today and continue to add new features to them.

What are some themes of your work that others will notice?  Most of my themes are of downtown Knoxville.

What inspires you and why?  My daughter and girlfriend, family and friends inspire me. They have been there for me to help me in tough times of depression. I want to be successful to show others that what my mother said was true. “You can do anything you put your mind to.”

What’s next for you and your art?  I don’t know what’s next for my art. I hope to one day be internationally known for my work. In the meantime, I will be in more and more local, homegrown events.

What’s the best thing about the Knoxville art community right now?  The best thing about the Knoxville art community right now is that it’s growing.  People seem to be coming together more, being more free spirited and open minded, which is a beautiful thing to witness.

Which one is you?

Digital media vs. Old school media

I like digital media

Picasso vs. da Vinci

da Vinci

Realism vs. Abstract

Realism

Mountains vs. Lakes

Lakes

Market Square vs. The Old City

Market Square

Coffee house vs. Pub

Coffee House

Kathryn Aycock – Best of Show Winner – Opportunity Knocks

Kathryn Aycock

Where are you from and where do you live now?
I grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee, graduating from Dobyns-Bennett High School, leaving in 1961 for art school at Auburn University.  After three years, I transferred to the University of
Tennessee earning a bachelor’s degree in fine arts.  I’ve lived out in the country on the flank of Black Oak Ridge in Northeast Knox County since 1970.

Do you enter a lot of contests and what inspired you to enter this show?
Some years I have a booth in the Foothills Craft Guild’s fall show. To date, I have not entered many exhibits or contests. I just love making art. In early fall, my friend Anne Freels said Broadway Studios and Gallery is having an open show of door art. Using a door as a base for
art intrigued me. A few days later I went to Architectural Antics and got my door. I began working on it early October. I am an artist of many media, but captivated by mosaics, so
I said the door is asking for mosaic, although I knew that would make it quite heavy.

Explain what your winning piece is about.
My husband of 47 years died in August 2011. Losing the most important person ever in ones life isn’t easy. The piece is an “Homage” to him and to life. The theme is life, love, memories, and our life together. I wanted the piece to be somewhat serious yet bright and lighthearted, colorful, with humor and fun. I traveled through many memories, selecting a few, giving them expression. Working on this door art from beginning to end has been healing. Art is healing.

Is this different than what you usually make and if so, how?
This is my first attempt to incorporate my writing with my visual art. (I began writing in 2008 under the guidance of Judy Bingham in Maryville, Tennessee.) This is the largest and most
elaborate indoor project I’ve ever tackled. I work in many different media. I love mosaics, my favorite for the moment.  When I’m working with paint, fiber, metal, beads, or making jewelry, well, then each of them is my favorite.  I’m eclectic. Since 2004, I have juried into the Foothills
Craft Guild in three categories: jewelry, fiber, and mixed media (submitting mosaics).

What inspires you and why?
All of nature is my muse. Of all the elements of art, color is what I respond to the most. Color sets me on fire. I don’t have a favorite and can’t ignore any of them. I love them all from the saturated primaries and secondary’s to all the shades and tints right down to the neutrals and subtle mixtures. Sometimes I work with a limited palette. I even love renditions in black and white; technically they are not colors.

What’s next for you and your art?
I’ll keep making art, exploring media and techniques as long as I breathe . I’ll keep writing; I’ll
keep landscaping. Come spring, I’ll start making hypertufa again. Hypertufa is a kind of concrete product that is much lighter in weight. I’m in the very long-term process of enhancing my little acre with whimsical, fantasy landscaping. I couldn’t live without art. BTW: One can see examples of hypertufa on the base of my piece in The Door Show at BSG.

What is the best thing about the Knoxville art community
right now?
Knoxville is so much more open to the arts now than when I moved here in 1964. There are so many, many people and groups working in some expression of art. It’s hard to track it all, and that is wonderful. The arts are at the core of learning and that was proven in a federally funded research effort, the results published in 1995 under Eloquent Evidence. It can be found in a pdf file on the Internet by searching under that name. I wish our culture would quit thinking of the arts as frills. They are the core.

Which term below relates to you?

Digital media vs. Old school media
Old school media — I like multi-sensory experience and to have the hands, even the
whole body, at work.

Picasso vs. da Vinci
Probably Picasso — he pioneered breaking through barriers

Realism vs. Abstract
Both are equally rich in artistic expression

Mountains vs. Lakes
The Blue Ridge Parkway

Market Square vs. The Old City
This is like asking which of your fraternal twin children is your favorite

Coffee house vs. Pub
I have fond memories of the Mad Mouse a (pub) which was on Cumberland Ave. in 1964-65.

Sunsphere vs. The Empire State Building
The Narrow Ridge Community in Washburn, Tennessee — it makes a small footprint

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Ed White on Jan Lynch

A  Feature Article for Broadway Studios and Gallery by Anne Ramsaur

This October at Broadway Studios and Gallery we present Jan Lynch: A Retrospective. I had the chance to meet with Ed White, who worked alongside Jan, to learn a little about their adventures together as a reporter and photographer team.

About his intentions for Jan’s Retrospective, he says, “Well I’m basically doing this because I don’t want him to be forgotten and I know that there’s a whole generation of people that don’t know anything about him locally.”

“Do you know any of his background?” Ed asks. “Well, what really turns this into endlessly complicated stories is that he was a priest. He was a (Ukrainian) Byzantine Catholic priest.  So, trying to reconcile all of these things is what makes working on this biography a worthwhile endeavor.” And Ed, as Jan’s appointed biographer, has made it one of his life’s missions to ensure that Jan’s work becomes better known to the public.

Imagine a man who threads his career as a Ukrainian Catholic Priest through his life as an artist, a pioneering Knoxville photographer, a complex man who is gay, with so much to experience and to share.  And this is during the mid-eighties, a time when AIDS took the lives of a great many gay men, particularly, usually within a two-year life expectancy (once diagnosed). In the five or so years that Jan and Ed spent working together, they accomplished a lot, but then, quite sadly, Jan died at just forty five.

You will find Ed White’s fascinating biographical article in October’s Mercury. 

This November will be twenty years since Jan died, and one of several ways that Ed White has chosen to remember him, is through a Retrospective at BSG.

How we are presenting this exhibit is significant. In 1992, at the Candy Factory in Knoxville, Jan hung his unframed photographs in an exhibit called “Polymorphous Perverse” on a long strip of butcher paper pinned to a ninety-foot wall.  Ed explains, “The exhibit was vandalized overnight in its opening week, an act Jan called cultural terrorism, but was never solved.  About a third of photos were cut out and removed with some kind of blade, and random others were simply slashed and left in place.  Jan replaced the missing prints with photocopies of prints.”

The butcher paper display method, (which we are reproducing at our BSG Retrospective), allowed Jan to show his “full range” of work, Ed explained, “because he’d shown at local places…the library downtown.” Even the nudes? I asked him. “Some of his nudes. He knew local taste and acceptance. He had a whole range. As a matter of fact, most of his more Mapplethorpe-like works, (explicit) will probably not be seen in this exhibit either, and is some of the hardest of his works to explain…very radical for him to have produced all that.”

“I only knew Jan in the last five or six years of his life. He was already pretty famous locally and was starting to get famous nationally, He had this kind of mystique about him, this kind of infamy about him, too. All kind of things got said about him, and a lot of it was not true you know…legends grew up around him. Because, even today he is known as ‘Knoxville’s Mapplethorpe.’ And there are a lot of reasons why he is similar to Mapplethorpe (The American photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe).” Ed finds the comparisons of the two photographers is only partially accurate. Unlike much of Mapplethorpe’s work, Lynch’s photographs have a great deal of warmth, he says. Lynch’s street scenes, have a more human feel.

The friendship began while Ed worked for the small publication for UT’s Gay and Lesbian Student Union. “I was trying to get an interview with him (Jan), and he kind of put me off for a long time…. Finally, he gave me the interview and about this time he asked me to be his biographer which I thought was funny, (Ed explains later that “It seemed presumptuous to need a biographer”). I thought, well why not?”  Ed took it as an opportunity to write bits and pieces, and write artist biographies when Jan needed that. It just followed that they worked quite well together, and were soon hunting down stories for papers and magazines, as a writer and photographer team.

Between 1993-6 the two managed to “tag along” on press conferences with visiting celebrities arranged by the University Center. “I would try to find some gay question to ask. Usually, it was kind of a stretch to get a gay angle on one of these, because, you know the celebrities were just here for whatever they were famous for.  But I would kind of stick my neck out there. Usually I could make an article off of one question you know.  Because part of it was talking about the celebrity, too, and generally they were supportive of gay rights. And that was another of Jan’s philosophical things, he thought by bringing these celebrities to the public’s attention as being gay-supportive, it was helpful to them as well. And just in general, everyone was benefitting, plus he got photos for his collection. So we did a number of those, and I think Alice Walker was one of my favorites.  She actually wouldn’t give an interview. She just let Jan photograph her, but we got to meet her.”

As we talked, Ed showed me photographs in a big white album with copies of much of Jan’s professional work, mostly from gay publications. Studies of people, portraits, mostly, ranged from a frontal male nude whose clothes have just dropped around his feet in a park, to his grandmother looking at his photos, to celebrities such as Nancy Reagan, Edwin James Almos, and Robert F. Kennedy.

Ed points out at a photo of a starkly naked man near the old UT parking garage. “He did a lot of them (shots) on the UT campus downtown.” And there was never a problem with that? I asked Ed. “No… he would pick, of course, you know, the ‘golden hour’  for lighting is early in the morning, and Sunday mornings was…. oh, (perfect) because everyone was either in church or in bed!”

There is a photo of a nude that Ed says belongs in the “back room” of our exhibit. And one from Drummer magazine. “Mapplethorpe was featured in that a couple of times, so he (Jan) was proud to have some shoots for Drummer.” Then, Ed shows me a photograph of Jan’s great aunt, entitled “Maude the Flirt,” ” It was actually done in the seventies, back before he really had intentions to be an artist, but, uh, it’s his Mona Lisa,  the way I look at it.  She has that enigmatic sort of something about it. That look.”

I admire a photo of Al Gore. It’s very unassuming, seems candid.  “He took quite a few of Al Gore. I liked the way he would put, uh, a lot of politicians next to drag queens and he called ‘political drag’, you know?”

“And I’ve been a subject (model) of him, too, and it was therapeutic in a way, and in a way, kind of liberating.  I always thought his nudes were kind of part political statement, for the models as well as for him. It was a time when it was still a little dicey to be out, so the people that were willing to model nude for him, it was a very out statement, even for models who were straight in an odd way.” 

Jan Lynch is an enigma. His story would make an incredible movie, I think; not mainstream, necessarily. Certainly not for all. I wish I had had the chance to know him. There are a great many lives he touched, not the least of which, would be his family, whom I know little about and his friends. His was a life of struggle, it seems, and contradictions, at least in the ways an outsider might see it. I think there is no question that Jan Lynch put his whole heart and soul into whatever he did. (He was known, Ed says, for his kindness and generosity). He pioneered a life. And his was a sacred one, an adventurous one. He was true to himself.

What was the Ukrainian connection for Jan? I wondered. And Ed offered, “The Byzantine Empire collapsed, the Eastern church moved to Ukraine, basically, the seat of it did. They called it themselves The Third Rome, that’s how he (Jan) explained it… and I think he was really big on going to the root of things, and so it was really important to him that he had the closest connection to the original Christianity.  Very complicated…yeah.”

“Now he went to Rome in ’71 or so, to school, (The Academy of  St. Thomas Aquinas) and he was ordained in ’78 in Windsor, Canada. And he had a couple of parishes there, but only for a couple of years.”

“Fatima (Our Lady of Fatima) is what really converted him. He saw a movie about it. And he converted from Episcopal to Catholic. And he went on a pilgrimage to Fatima, around 1970 right out of high school with his mother. And a couple other places, Lourdes and Garabandal. Anyway, he returned to Fatima throughout (his) life, and the year he died in ‘96 he was really terribly sick, but he went there again, and I took him to the airport. “Is this some kind of existential crisis you’re going through?” And he kind of just rolled his eyes and said, My whole life’s been an existential crisis. And it was the closest I ever got to him admitting how much of a struggle internally he’d always had.”

“Probably his most important influence in photography was Imogene Cunningham, a contemporary of Edward Weston and Ansel Adams.” Ed relays.  “She wanted to photograph everything that was exposed to light, and that kind of fit his (Jan’s) philosophy a lot…and she didn’t like fancy equipment, very basic with everything, practical, and very human, too.”

Did Jan develop his own work? I asked Ed.  “Oh yes, he was also a photographer for the McClung Historical Society, when I knew him, just in those years. He worked on the Two Centuries Project, the Bicentennial in Knox county, and they went around all over East Tennessee, and he took a whole setup to take copy prints of peoples’ personal collections of historical photographs, and they printed a book from them. And an online archive of them was even produced, but he was the primary photographer for that, and did all the developing of something like 4-5,000 negatives. “

We talk about how more conservative the times were, while in some ways things haven’t changed much. “Jan grew up in a time with a lot more to do with sexual liberation, in parallel with the women’s movement.” Ed believes “The gay rights debate has kind of lost the liberation element in the newest generation.”

And continues, “In some ways it could be partially in response to AIDS. AIDS drove the gay rights movement into overdrive and propelled it through the 90’s …You know, a lot of people were fighting for their lives, and there were a lot of people…sticking their necks out for all the rest of us.  Well, Jan died with AIDS.” And Ed was one of his caregivers, including other friends, and Jan’s family. It was towards the end that Ed found Jan the priest again, “blessing everyone who came into the room. He kind of glowed with this aura about him, this saintliness, which is why I sometimes call myself the “Apostle Ed.” “

When did he die?  I ask Ed. “Oh, good Lord, he was 45. And really, he’d only been trying to be an artist for 15 years. And he was really right on that cusp of a breakthrough. Mostly his work was known in the Gay community but I think it would have broken out…”

“It’s hard,” Ed explains, when describing the struggle and devastation AIDS brought to so many lives he knew. “Jan died the year the Protease Inhibitors came out and wasn’t able to benefit from it.” And so it was in the documentary “How to Survive a Plague,” with stories about the early days of AIDS in the US. Today with treatment, AIDS is no longer a predictable death sentence.

It is Ed White’s most ardent wish to find a home for a substantial collection of Jan Lynch’s work which has remained in storage for over twenty years. He would like to see the photographs preserved and shown, to be more available to the public. “I’m trying to jump-start his career from the grave, as it were…It’s really his gift to the world, and it deserves to be in the world.” Ed is working on a website with this in mind. And he welcomes “brainstorming” with the community about a foundation, perhaps, or some way to educate people, and to promote Lynch’s work, much in the way Mapplethorpe’s legacy has grown. Ed has no monetary interest in this at all. His work is strictly volunteer.

Hope Center will be the recipient of all proceeds earned from the sale of Jan’s photographs at our Retrospective at BSG.  “Jan was intimately involved with the facility which then and now has provided support and hospice care to individuals and families with HIV/AIDS at no charge.” Ed explains. “Dr. Jeannie Gillian was the founder of Hope Center. She was a doctoral student in 1995 when Jan first got sick with AIDS. She was working on the psychology of hope for people affected by HIV and AIDS. And he was one of her study participants. She’s got hours of interviews with him. So he was there for her dissertation defense at UT, and then, of course, the opening of Hope Center.”

“I worked with them, (Hope Center) also, until a few years ago, doing workshops.”” Ed tells me. “Did a dramatic monologue called The Caregiver. The workshops were about putting the human side to the disease.  And it was given for healthcare workers and members of the community who were dealing with HIV and AIDS on various levels… and so I kind of represented the caregiver’s side of it. “

Did Jan feel a sense of accomplishment?  “Yeah, but there’s definitely that sense of tragedy that he was not done. And listening to interviews taped within that last year, you can hear it wasn’t exactly denial, but there was this kind of sense that he couldn’t think of the possibility that he might die because there was work to be done, and you couldn’t have hope if you focused too much on that. But it’s…that’s where it gets real tragic to listen to because we didn’t realize how little time there really was.”

This is a personal exhibit. It is about a life and the struggle to live it honestly to oneself. It   reflects a part of Knoxville’s past, and, as Ed puts so well, “The reaction to his work, like everything else about Jan, was complicated.  He faced vandalism and censorship, but earned the admiration and devotion of many, as well.  But even today his clearly artistic nudes might provoke just as strongly judgmental opinions that would prefer it not be seen.” Here, in 2016, we have a chance to reflect on what might have changed since then, aware that change comes slowly, often painfully. These are not just photographs to be seen at face value. Some are provocative, of course. Some may find their way to your heart. If one takes the time to know more about who is behind the camera, it will be a far richer experience. Ed White has given us the chance to discover the genius of Jan Lynch. We welcome your thoughts. And we will provide a forum for this in our gallery.

A little more about Ed White: He showed up in Knoxville sometime in 1979 to attend UT. “I’m from the south, I had a childhood in Atlanta, and teen years in Memphis, and I was born in Mississippi, but I am fairly naturalized to Knoxville now.”

In addition to writing a biography about Jan Lynch, Ed has found great satisfaction in his all-volunteer work in the theater for over twenty five years, and enjoys life with his family “Somewhere between the West View and Powell areas” of Knoxville, and is very proud of his daughter Solvi, (who just turned nine this month), to whom he wishes to leave the legacy of his work with Jan.  Again, be sure to read Ed White’s biography on Jan Lynch in October’s Mercury.

 

 

 

A Conversation with Annamaria Gundlach, Our Artist for May, 2016

 

 

All of us at Broadway Studios and Gallery look forward to our May exhibit of Annamaria Gundlach, who lives in East Tennessee. She teaches art as an “outreach artist” at the Knoxville Museum of Art, and at the Knoxville Fine Arts & Crafts Center, (next door to our Gallery). As a scultptor, she has received many awards and grants, and exhibits in museums and fine arts exhibitions.

Her own words from her website describe her work best:

“Each of my clay sculptures has its own voice which speaks as I create it. As a figurative artist I’m fascinated by the female form and its impact on art and religion throughout history. Nature is my inspiration and my figures reflect sensuality, strength and connection to the earth.”

“I strive to create organic figures that exude natural elegance. I burnish and pit-fire my work so the smoke ages and mutes the colors with a patina that has a haunting suggestion of lost and forgotten eras. I refer to my work as “modern artifacts”.This oxymoron reflects my contradictory intent of modern elegance achieved with primitive methods and various surface enrichments that connect the past to present.”

I invite you to learn more about Annamaria Gundlach through the resources provided at the end of our conversation. Her enthusiasm for teaching art, for discovering history and beauty in nature, all seemed to just flow out of her, when we met at Broadway Studios and Gallery just recently. I hope that you will enjoy knowing a bit more about what motivates an artist, and this artist in particular, in the way she relays to us her passion for the creative.

A Conversation, which just begins:

I get my energy from people. So you must be a people person, because you teach… I love teaching children…I love their genuine enthusiasm. Any particular age? Oh no, all ages, and adults.

I will tell you an experience I had, just to give you an idea of what its like.. When I taught summer camp one time, there were triplets, and they must have been about 5 year old and they were split up. And the little girl was in my group and she was crying and very upset and we were doing colors. (And I teach basic art. I don’t dummy down to children). I only use primary colors and a little white….and they learn to mix colors, and so,she was crying I said to her, “Why don’t you find a color that will make you happy?” And she looked at me and said, “Sometimes things are so beautiful they can make you sad”..and I’m thinking oh my gosh, so I find I am learning from them as much as they learn from me. and they trust me and I’ll say, you know I’ve been doing this for a hundred years and fortunately they believe me! And once they trust me and I trust them. And so, art is a relationship. Well, even adults, especially people who in time have lost confidence, and I say this to everyone, I really don’t change things very much whether I teach children or adults.

What makes an artist different from someone who is not an artist? An artist does art and an artist’s focus is on art, and if you want to learn how to draw what do you do? You have just go around and learn to see, your hands are going to translate what you see. So you start drawing. Maybe initially it’s not going to be what you like, but as you see better and your depth perception and your perspective improves you start to see and then you say oh my gosh, I can draw, I really can draw, and then of course if you want to take classes and learn from people who are qualified to help you that’s even better, but artists do art in their thoughts and their minds and in art. That’s what they do, and that’s what I do. And and I’m always one of these people who when I see things sometimes I get a whole different idea…wow! look at that, or I can use that or I like that shape.

I saw a bear the other day, this plastic bear, and I said I love that, and I could see how I could abstract that into a sculpture, that …It’s just like it was this chotzky little thing, but I’m looking at it like I’m going to make that bear…and you’re not copying that, all you’re doing is like, it’s like seeing other artists work, of course you’re not going to copy it, but it’s like I love that style…that person is…we’re on the same wave length.

And you will find artists like that because there’s an artist, and I think her name is Anne Franck, People have sent me articles about her she’s an artist ..from the sixties…. She’s doing things, in some ways like I am. And I don’t know her. I never even saw her. She a sculptor, and she does very, uh, a lot of disconnected figures and very, very organic. And I love that theme of emergence, I love that subtlety of coming out, I just have always liked that. And I guess she had the same idea too. I think she was kind of like a hippie in the sixties.

As a child was art …big for you? Well, it was in the sense that I loved going to the Boston Museum, the Childrens Museum, where everything was small, and what I would do, (I came from a big family, a big crazy family), there were seven of us, and I would find a corner in the hallway, and I would do this outside too, I would find buttons and bottle caps and I would create these little worlds, and you’d find like weeds and make food out of it, and I loved these little, my little world, and I do find many times I do like doing assemblages and doing things like that. yeah, so I did and doing things like painting and drawing.

It’s pretty evident that as a child you were an artist, and that art was important to you. It was, and it was also a way of, for me, a way of probably escaping, you know, you could escape and… have your own world. Exactly. You were creating your own space. Exactly, its like this crazy Italian family, everybody screaming and yelling…

So you are not from here…I’m from Boston. I’ve been in East Tennessee for almost twenty one years and [prior to that] I went to Florida. I graduated from the University of of Florida and I did teach arts and crafts there and I learned clay from a Florida treasure, her name was Olive Scaret Briggs. And she was fabulous, because, see, I started in ceramics as a studio potter, you know, throwing, glazing, and firing. And I cannot speak for others but for me, where clay is a medium that involves chemistry, it involves, also architecture. And then you have the problem of firing, so, to me, I think you need to learn all the rules, really learn them, and I think this is true, probably for a lot of the arts; then you can break them, and you can say I know how to break them… and of course, I’m experimenting, but you still have that basic construct, so that its not all fluff and not all happenstance. It is still there is a planning, because the creative process is, actually, in many ways, a thinking process, an artist like me, I have to think about, like that bear, I’ve got to think about right now the shape of it what its going to… I already see what I think it’s going to look like and I have to figure out if I want it to to be big, how am I going to make it? And so it’s almost like making a structure and if it’s…it’s got to fit in a kiln, do I have to segment it?

Teaching is a big part of what I do, and and I do have to make things for teaching that are really doable for people and is in their comfort zone,and, and its fun anyway, and I love to see people succeed. And I’ll tell ya, sometimes, I’ll have a class and I can’t even tell if I made it or they made it, because they’ve really watched, and listened and observed. And you know, that’s great.

This show that you are bringing to us (at BSG), is it a retrospective? The title is “The Body as Art”, and some of it is new and some of it is a retrospective, which are pieces of my own, that I have just kept and have and they almost are kind of like as you evolve, as you say into different styles, but it’s quite a few torsos, and some more.

While I don’t feel it’s necessary here to write a whole biography of you now…what is important about you? I will say that I have gone to Italy quite a bit and I have very strong Italian heritage, so when I’m in Italy I have always been very …uh its like two worlds, one is of course, the Renaissance, and I love the beauty, but for me its the Etruscans, and actually, I was just I was in Italy about two months ago, and they’re really a mystery. They’re a group of people who came and have that ingenuity and they and they kept building on whenever invaders came, and what I love about them. There was always this elegance, this beauty, and so that’s why I call a lot of my work “modern artifacts,” because I love that referring to the past, because if we don’t see connections, it’s like, oh, we think like, oh, we’ve just invented the wheel… I don’t think so…..So you’ll have a torso without arms... oh yeah. There’s quite a lot of your art online, that I saw…and Etruscan art fascinates me too. I have been so influenced by art of the Mediterranean. Yes and so what happened one time was when we were in Italy, and this is very common, Italy has a law that if you build a building, and you find any artifacts, any any bones, you cannot remove them. So all of Italy and most of, I think, the world, you build on things, Or around them…Well, or on top of them, you build on top of them… when you go to Rome you’ll see why is the house up so high? The door?..and its because everything’s settled, and its because there were so many different civilizations, and they would re-use everything too, they would re-use the block ? And so I go in this bar and I noticed that we would walk in someplace and there were lights on and there was Plexiglas were walking on and there are bones, and shards of ceramics, and I loved it, I just loved it, and I just thought I’d never seen anything like this, and everybody’s drinking in the bar. and all, and yeah, it’s part of the life. I wish we did more things like that here too. I do too, how you treat the dead tells a lot about society.

But I do think…I don’t know what’s happening in terms of the people understanding that we build on, as we evolve as human beings and we owe a lot to the people who came before us, and I don’t care if it goes back to the Neanderthals, …and also it’s the ingenuity and the art, these people are in a cave and yet they feel the impetus to leave some incredible art. No one told them, God knows, they might have been exhausted from hunting, and gathering… You go to Lescault, and these places, you go, and its like this is, again I quote what I tell children, what makes us different from all the other animals is creativity, in the sense that we are given that gift to create, and to draw, to sculpt, to, to make buildings, to write….all the arts, dance.

And it’s the humanity, art has a humanity, it has a humanity, regardless.. you might say as harsh as it can be, and well, maybe that’s a side, if it gets people

e to think, or to react, or just to feel nice, I mean and it’s lovely if you can create something beautiful…there are all kinds of people, and everybody has their wants and likes.

Just outside of Lebanon, I saw cities built on top of each other at an archaeological dig…but the most fascinating thing I saw was a pottery egg with a hole broken through showing a human skeleton in the fetal position.

Well, that’s just like when I was in, San Vicenzo, we went to an Etruscan museum, and I asked them, because I do speak Italian, and they had glass during that time of the Etruscans, and the man said oh Si Senora, and they put the bodies in little boxes and cremated them but he had a little box and he had a lily flower made of that green kind of glass, and he said when someone died everybody would cry a tear into this little vial, and they would put that in with the body.

I thought it was so moving, it just shows you that we haven’t really changed.

Many people are not exposed to this kind of history, and the value of it.

It is perplexing, you worry a little bit, especially with art being played down, that people are not exposed to, and not having that opportunity…and this is one of my specialties, in arts integration, that you actually can teach many subjects through the arts, like I did with sculpture.

I had the the Civil War, I had children learn different figures, and look it up, but then they did a sculpture, and the sculpture they made inspired them. I did that, you know, with explorers, Pizarro and Cortes, and then when I did it with the American Revolution, also I told them, you know, you’re gonna love George Washington, and the thing of it is they even acted, they found what they thought was important rather than having the teacher have them read a book… they had to do research, and they learned so much through going into that character, and then of course, they also shared it, you know, you could learn from other classmates. Fascinating. This is the way I learn best…, same here.

I do not like this sitting down, I call it like “sausage learning”, just stuff, stuff, stuff, stuff. It’s just like when I teach color theory with little kids, and they’ll go, or I’ll go, “what happens if we do this or that, and I’ll say let’s try it and they’ll say what happens when you mix all the primary colors?” And they’ll try it, and they see for themselves, but the thing that’s the most exciting, and I can honestly say, I’ve taught thousands and thousands of children, I’ve been doing this in Florida, too. I’ve never seen two colors alike, and I cannot understand it and how you can give them all primaries and a little white, and how they can come up with so many different colors and approaches. Fascinating. It is. It’s exciting. They learn ratio, they learn what’s a stronger color just in mixing colors, they have to. And the way they do it is by hands on. I use Que Tips. I keep it very simple so that its not, like, “oh wash the brush!” And we do that too, at times, but just the basics and they love it. And I always send a lot of the paintings they do to the director, David Butler, (of the Knoxville Museum of Art), and I will say, “this is a future artist here,” and he is always amazed, always. He’ll bring flowers in and we’ll do a flower and we’ll talk about shape and how to look at things. Phenomenal.

What’s coming through to me about you is your love of art, the exchange of it and keeping it alive through history and human beings today, and filtering what you know…sharing what you know with people. Art is a living thing. It is, thank you. It is artifacts. It’s a living thing. It’s what you do today, and from what you are sharing with me from artifacts, from the earth.

Oh I love clay. I’ve written a whole, kind of a, I don’t know how to explain it now, because I haven’t completed it yet, but its about clay’s role in civilization, because of all your artifacts, it’s really evolving, it’s really clay. And for example, when I was in Greece, they have little potty seats made of clay, things they made with clay! It was phenomenal. Imagine they knew to do that! It was phenomenal. Clay has played a role in civilization from the amphora, which started trade when they could put oil in those, and rice then the big, huge beautiful planters of the Romans….and the masks, and so you look at clay, and then, if you want to go way, way back, what a difference! You’re eating uncooked food or whatever, and then someone (notices) finally some clay hardens and they see they can make cups harden and they can hull whole seeds in it, and clay as makeup. These women… gorgeous make up, Still used today… Yeah, and its used in a lot of art, painting, and mediums, for healing, yeah, so I do find that clay has so much to do with the past, and now, with rocket ships going up into space, so much of that is clay…because of the thermal shock…So, it’s really a fascinating, fascinating medium. But the best part is ..clay..you can play with it and if it doesn’t work you can scrunch it up into a ball again and try again. It’s a little more user-friendly, and it is fun, and it’s extremely tactile, and that’s the other thing…were losing this, this sense of touch. I make kids.. I teach clay, and make the kids close their eyes when they make this sphere. And I want it in their hands and they’ll go “why?” and I will tell them to touch this. Your hands are tools, and then I say you can feel, see if you can feel this, if it’s smooth and round… so there’s all this getting in touch with the medium, in touch with your senses, and getting centered. What could be more grounding than that, literally? Exactly.

Clay is that medium. I love it. I’m always pushing clay and I’ll go, “kids with clay are like peanut butter and jelly They just go together so well, good combinations!

Oh, I know the sky’s the limit with creativity and kids, and you must have so much fun. I use clay and I’ve taught very….people w terrible physical and mental disorders, and yet clay lets you be in that childlike (state) and the I’ve always used art, as a way, you know, for people to explore more their own senses, you know, their own thoughts, so it s a very, a great way to get people to relax, many people say it’s their way to relax, its their Prozac, or whatever, and I think that’s a compliment.

Your work that we will see at our gallery, is it all clay? No, I have some mixed media. I have some pieces where I do like assemblages, where I mix clay and glass and found art, and all that. I have some, it just depends, I have done paintings, My main thing is really clay. But your main ‘body’ of work is clay.

Yeah, and I don’t mind deconstructing and then reconstructing, and in fact, I’m doing more of that, and I find that’s a lot of fun, ’cause you know you always have to play and have fun with this. Its a discipline, there’s no question its a discipline. But on the other hand its not like a discipline like uh, its fun, its exciting. Yeah, and you play…and it’s fun, it looks good, yeah, and if it doesn’t work I’ll change it.

You have done art so much of your life...I have, yeah, and I’m not intimidated by it or I don’t really care, because when I’m with other artists and we have play days, and someone’s doing caustic and all that I’m at the point when I ll be the crazy one and ….experiment….You are not in competition… No!

I think some artists take themselves so seriously. Uh, that’s right, or they get in a rut, and they can’t kind of get out of it and they just want to let loose a little bit and try something else..and I expect, I mean, I respect…I have friends who do portraits, and they make a lot of money doing that, but I wonder, you know, sometimes, if you just have that other side to you when, now a lot of artists will tell me “I’m doing something so different from what I’m doing” and you do see, you see that resurgence in energy, this enthusiasm. It’s self-discovery… Yeah, and maybe the two worlds will come together, where they’ll let it merge, and they can loosen up a little bit but still keep that definite style that they have, because that’s one of the biggest things for an artist to have your style, where people will go that’s Andre Benoit, and that to me is a real compliment.

I have seen online, a bust, a head of a woman you have done that makes me think of how you make your mark in your art, and I really love it. Oh thank you, in fact, I studied with Peter Rubino, who is a very fine sculptor, and that was really interesting that he would have us start with the model first, and the model would move around to beautiful music, and the model would be very realistic and as we got along we became more and more abstract, because abstraction is nothing but knowing the real thing and finding that part of it. And I find more and more that I really love that, because to me, making things more and more realistic, I mean, we can get mannequins and things. So its like, that doesn’t interest me. I know. It’s why I’ve always loved Daumier, with his caricatures, in his little sculptures with figures in court, or something. Cartoon-like, with wonderful expressions! Like that woman’s head of yours I was talking about, and how you say you make it yours.

I’ve learned one thing. I try to share this with teachers who teach art. They have to realize that people, whether they are children or adults, many times don’t see what you are trying to have them see. They don’t see the same. Their perception is different. And many times and there’s a theory about artists, like Picasso, that maybe they had mono-vision, maybe they were just seeing from one eye, and so, how you see things will affect how you create your art. And so you have to find a way, when you teach, to allow people to have that part of their personality, to be integrated. So that it makes it their art, and also a reflection of who they are.

Thank you for the conversation, Annamaria. I’m glad it wasn’t so much the interview as just a conversation. I prefer a conversation.

Of course, where I live is incredibly beautiful. I’m really fortunate. You live near water.. I do. Near the foothills..Yes….Mountains are there, so if you can imagine, it is like the weather will determine….so maybe some mornings it will erase the mountains, It’s like a big smudge…other times it’s the snow, this white, or the clouds…or like if the sun is setting these golden beautiful rays come across. Its phenomenal. Its exquisite, and so I think that we need to be very careful. The aesthetic development. I’m very concerned because if you’re …I think it has to do with everything, because if you’re eating crap, your not going to know what its like to bite into a fresh apple in autumn, or, you know to cultivate a taste for fresh broccoli, if you’re used to eating McDonalds, and it’s salty …and that goes for watching a lot of TV or if you’re on computers a lot, so nature helps with spacial. To be outside…helps you develop your spacial. There”s a lot, you know, there is so much research done on what effects, what we see, and I call it the “aesthetic sensibility” of that which is around us. It is it’s own world…

We have these bluebirds; I have these birdhouses my students make and I’ve had them forever these bluebirds they just come all the time. In the winter time they come, you know, and they just come in to get warm. And somehow, it’s very funny, they can get eight or nine (inside a house) and the last one will keep its tail out…and its like, “no vacancy!”

I have a great respect for nature. I think that maybe our disconnect, for example, instinct, look at the example of the mother bird with her baby birds… Maybe we need to rely more on instincts sometimes and how we care for things.

I love rocks, and finding rocks, and like when I teach kids about fossils. When kids are bored we would look down and find fossils…and they know all the names, the dendrites, and we would find a lot of those, and little things kids got..collecting rocks and having so much fun, just doing that.

I think most everyone would agree that we could alleviate a lot of problems if we were more in touch with nature. Yeah, and that’s my church. It really is. And it’s a mystery and I like that mystery. I don’t understand everything…But living in East Tennessee, I think, is beautiful!

End

You are most welcome to visit our Gallery to see Annamaria Gundlach’s show this month of May at Broadway Studios and Gallery. We are open Thursdays through Saturdays from 11 am to 7 pm.

For more information about the artist, you can explore the resources listed below:

http://flyknoxville.com/tys/annamaria-gundlach/

http://tnartseducation.org/teaching-artist-roster/annamaria-gundlach/

http://artdeannamaria.weebly.com/

As always, thank you for your interest and support of the arts!!

Anne Ramsaur, BSG Artist and Blog Writer

A Visit with Owen Weston on his new show at BSG, “An Introspective Retrospective”

Speaking with Owen Weston at the New K-Brew

His show, “An Introspective Retrospective,” opens on April First, 2016, at Broadway Studios and Gallery

Today it’s Costa Rican coffee over Guatemalan. Here is a man who can make an entire conversation on his favorite brews, and adventures in seeking the best coffee in the world.

I don’t think Owen Weston would mind if I said he has ‘been around the block’ a few. Conversation just flows when he speaks of his life as an “image maker,” as he believes he was “called to be.” And he believes that “All artists, whether they represent or not, all Picasso’s, all Rembrandt’s work is autobiographical. You can look in any direction. If it’s not linear, it’s a mystical, religious philosophical biography.” An image that comes to mind here is the priestess from one of Owen’s paintings in his show (and here in the blog) in which the evening star is reflected in her eyes.

His earliest memory in Paris, Tennessee, was, as a two year old, ”as I sat on a concrete porch with a hard-leaded pencil writing on a piece of blue construction paper, and I wrote what made perfect sense to me as an alphabet.” His mother, an accomplished artist herself, disagreed with him, “It’s not the alphabet,” and little Owen replied “Well, it looks like an alphabet!” I suppose this affirms his own way of looking at things. He was determined to find out what a real alphabet was about and became literate, he says, at the tender age of three, reading Kon-Tiki full of rather vivid images for one so young.

College found Weston with three majors: Music, Art and English. He attended Austin-Peay State University, the University of Memphis, where he earned a BFA, then the University of Tennessee which awarded him an MFA. Post-graduate work in Educational Psychology followed. The art major seemed very much to thrive, as we know. The music major played woodwinds in quintets, radio commercials, and gigs in West Memphis, until his hearing quality became “messed up” and distorted. As a result, Owen says he rarely listens to any recorded music. Indeed, art would seem all the more significant in his life.

The English major? I can tell you something about that. In submitting this blog to Owen for review, I found his attention to detail enormously helpful, (with a present tense question over past, plus, a few typos, a bit of odd-wording on my part), with suggestions made by his true English major-self. He was careful that I did not feel offended. On the contrary, I welcomed his discerning eye!

We, at BSG, find Owen a great supporter of the arts. We are happy to see him on most every First Friday. On one such evening, when I overheard him talking about techniques over a young woman’s paintings on exhibition, I found the artist and introduced her to Owen. I sensed the young artist quite liked his sensitive observations about her work. When I mentioned this today to him, I noticed a small smile as he admitted that after forty years of teaching he can be “pedantic.” He added, “ I know more than I show…and I hope to be of use to other image makers.” And as education has been good to Weston, he has certainly returned it in kind with thirty four years teaching at West High School here in Knoxville, and currently in other venues.

As one would expect, Weston has known some very significant teachers and mentors, not the least of which was Knoxville-born artist Joseph Delaney, who lived and worked many years in New York, then returned to his hometown and became an artist-in-residence at UT. Weston describes him as “wonderfully Bohemian.” One time “He looked at what I was doing, and with a mouth full of chewing tobacco, he said, “You oughta be a big name!” Weston adds, “It was one of my turn-around experiences.”

More recently, it was “Mr. Nick,” as he was known in Knoxville who “profoundly encouraged me” at a challenging time in Weston’s life. Gifford Nicolaides taught drawing and painting briefly in the area, and was a founder of the portrait group that Weston is still a part of.

I think it would be safe to say that Weston has been a prolific artist. He shares a time when he was a severely depressed young painter who would discard his work in a dumpster near his home. He was aware later that there was some activity around the dumpster. Years later, Weston attended an event in the home of some folks, only to discover a painting that he was drawn to. It had an odd familiarity. On closer examination he found his own signature attached. He asked the hostess where she got the painting and she exclaimed, “a dumpster!” Weston has the feeling that he has work all over, much of it found, and given a reprieve in a new home somewhere out there.

On his upcoming show, “An Introspective Retrospective,” Weston remarks that he is “re-emerging” from what feels like a long hiatus from the public and commercial world of art. And now he is taking the somewhat daunting steps to put himself out there,“at the insistence of friends” and his “long-supporting ex- wife.” These are friends who have heard his pronouncements of not wanting “to show any more,” not wanting “to do art anymore” while his friends would have none of it. And so, at the risk of invoking any ire from his friends, fans and supporters we have the return of Owen Weston and his images to the Knoxville scene.

And if that is not enough, Weston is reminded of the part in Dante’s Inferno in which Dante and Virgil find themselves in a pit of misery with heads sticking up from below. Dante asks (these are not verbatim quotes from the book) “Who are these people?” and Virgil tells him “The lowest pit in hell is reserved for the poet who doesn’t write.” This can be a sensitive point for the creative, and for Weston, who says “it certainly resonated with me.”

We are pleased to share with the reader a few of Owen’s almost mystical journeys in the form of Monk cartoons. (Signed copies will be available at the show.) Weston describes going into a state of mind in which he just does these drawings quite automatically, without the interference of thought. They are curious, amusing and at times, mischievious characters. There is something of a timeless quality to them. I would love to see him compile these into book-form.

Owen was still deciding which pieces to show when we talked, but you will see the painting I have already described, “The Cat Lady,” which he tells me he is not quite finished. (But he never really feels completely done with a painting. There just comes a time to let it go, and move on). The subject is a friend of his who might not be pleased with the outcome of her likeness, he says. Her penetrating eyes show a lot of life left in her yet. Weston participates in a portrait group. Through this one painting alone, one can understand a fascination with expression, with a good face. It is a face that is at once a caricature, yet is not. The gaze is highly intense, perhaps a bit disconcerting. A robust-enough feline walks on a railing behind her head, with a front paw moving forward while it looks back. It certainly speaks to me of a wistfulness in the process of aging, and shows his interest in the “mystical and ritualistic aspect of ordinary life,” as he puts it.

“An Introspective Retrospective” brings us his three main techniques as an image maker, with photography, drawing, and painting. When he told me he was thinking about showing ten of each, I envisioned someone who is fair-minded, circumspect, and orderly, but Weston suggests “orderly in thought” only. And he adds,“The texture of my life is quite dense.” For him, “An orderly place is a clear sign of a disorderly mind.”

And so, without having seen a lot of Owen Weston’s work, I can tell you to expect to be surprised. I certainly will be. A colored pencil drawing of a female nude that he submitted to one of our shows late last year, won a prize, not surprisingly. And this is typical of his work. The human figure has dominated Weston’s interest, and not landscapes. He likes to work with “plant life and architectural details” noted more in his photographs.

My pleasure today, was to spend a little time with Owen Weston, the person, to find him charming and mellow with a delightful sense of humor. When I asked him about a description of himself on a old Twitter account I found online, he listened as I read it to him and it still seemed to resonate. This is what he wrote: “old, health-challenged, benevolent, semi-heathen, dedicated to making art and understanding the way of things.” He asked me to make this his “artists statement” for the show. When we walked out of K-Brew I observed his rather fine silver-blue sports car. In a characteristic little tilt of his head, he explained that he “likes a bit of flashiness and technology.”

Broadway Studios and Gallery is excited and proud to have this distinguished image-maker’s work for the month of April. Let’s see what surprises a lifelong career, by a long-time Knoxville artist with hundreds of shows behind him, (his last major show was in 2002) has in store for us in his “Introspective Retrospective.”

And finally, I would like to thank Owen’s friends, (and “favorite ex” he points out), for encouraging his return to the art world, where, he does indeed, belong!

Written by Anne Ramsaur, artist at Broadway Studios and Gallery

Monk Cartoons

 

 

Meet M. Ziggie Ziegler, Our February Artist

A Conversation with M. Ziggie Zeigler

January, 2016

It is such a pleasure to tell you about our February artist, known to many in Knoxville as just “Ziggie.” Like our January artist, Hannah Harper, you will find an adventurer, only instead of underwater territory, Ziggie’s is found right in town, and in places practically under our noses, while not necessarily easy landmarks.

Ziggie’s world is reached by bicycle or on foot, and is more than just geographical. It starts with a state of mind and an open approach to parts of town in “urban decay.” “I’m able to kind of look at the world in slow-motion”, Ziggie explains when she finds herself meandering through often-deserted streets. And once she discovers and captures the image she wants, she takes the photo to her studio to, in her words, “breathe new life” into it. The photos of her work we include in this blog should give you some sense of this new life, in a certain kind of “living color.”

The “Alley Cat” series really began in 2012, when the theater production part of Ziggie’s life was slow, and she decided to get out her equipment and just shoot. And since then, her work has been and is being shown in a variety of places. “I started exploring underneath bridges, where there were just piles and piles of rolled up mattresses and sleeping bags…I got really infatuated with the homeless…there were numerous times when I was very, very close to being where they were…barely able to pay the rent myself.”

One of the many intriguing works Ziggie showed me the day we met was a narrow, fenced-in area behind a business in the “old city.” It took some convincing of the owner to allow her to shoot in their outdoor break area. “I thanked the guy profusely for letting me through the back door..” And indeed, she will do what it takes to get that compelling shot.

Of course, you will most definitely notice the incredible high resolution in Ziggie’s work. I asked her how this comes to be. Does a high resolution digital SLR not just take care of this kind of detail? It’s more in the photographer’s hands. The process is surprisingly laborious. First, is the photo shoot, which is a series of photo bites she will use to piece together the whole scene. Each bite brings with it the high resolution she needs for a 30x 20 or 30×30 size work. The next phase is to “stitch together” via computer program all the bites she shoots. Using Photoshop, the artist “smart-selects” aspects of the photo, whether it be a fence line, a pole, a brick wall or the sky, for example, and adjusts the contrast, the sharpness, and the brightness as she needs to.

This stitching process can result in something very exciting, too. I asked Ziggie if she used special lenses (like a “fish eye”) to capture a particular curve-effect in an old brick building (title of work?) that surely is not naturally contoured. She was able to create the curve in the top of the building by attaching the bites a certain way, without fancy lenses, but through some meticulous stitch work.

“I get really bored with blue skies, and occasionally I will change the entire sky as well. Normally on a really cloudy or stormy day when the clouds are really talking, I just go go out and superimpose that sky into another piece I am working on.” And you will see some interesting skies, I assure you. Nothing boring here.

“I never really considered myself an artist with my first shows, “ Ziggie remarks, and “I probably angered a lot of other photographers in my first artists statement.” “Before, I didn’t see photography as an art form…all you do is just shoot it and print.” But it was when she discovered Photoshop and all that editing could do, and the building of her own frames, too, that she slowly changed her thinking about this.

And speaking of frames, these are made by the artist herself, out of wood palettes. Here the stage set builder comes to life. She finds a palette with just the right planks, all the same thickness, cuts it to size, routes it, and buys glass, then makes a backing. “It’s a lot cheaper to do it this way, and it goes with the piece better.” She loves living in the country, and working in her garage, her shop. It gives her the perfect balance from the life she loves in the city.

Indeed, it just “works.” Her love of photography, art and architecture, and love of woodcraft all come together in one piece. And I might add here, the artist’s theatrical side. As a set designer, she is actually creating a scene of her own, a scene one can hang on a wall.

She keeps one original large work and will sell that, but will never reprint it to that size again, while smaller copies of her work are available for sale. Most of Ziggie’s work is shot in Knoxville, with a few from other cities. She happened to be traveling through Cincinnati one day when she eyed an old church. She vowed to return when she could to find it, which she did. She was struck to find the building in quite excellent shape in such a neglected area, with “not a shred of vandalism.” After much research she discovered it was constructed in 1863 as the First German Reform Church, and that it had been abandoned since the 1970’s. Ziggie has indeed brought “new life” to this old, remarkable beauty. It invites…and one could wish to see it restored as the artist sees it.

Ziggie seems a bit taken aback and “very, very grateful” at how well her work is being received. Her “Alley Cat” series now being shown this month at our own Broadway Studios and Gallery, has already hung at Urban Bar, Big Fatty’s, The Bearden Beer Market, Wells Fargo on Gay Street, and most recently, at the Red Piano. In March she exhibits at Crafty Bastard, followed by Kristophers in April, ans Ijams Nature Center in September.

M. Ziggie Zeigler strikes me a kind, compassionate and generous woman with a strong, confident voice, and a special place in her heart for Knoxville. Her work, I sense, comes from a very deep place within, from a life that was challenged at a young age. Some would call her an “old soul.” Indeed, from the ashes rises the Phoenix, and in the work of this one artist, this Phoenix flourishes brightly, and offers a rather vivid sense of hope and renewal.

As we started to wrap up our visit at Coffee and Chocolate on Market Square Ziggie unleashed a bit of her passion in these words:

“When I first started working in Knoxville, I fell in love with it immediately and knew that I always, always wanted to be a part of it. There’s always something going on. Whenever you walk through downtown, the more you want to be a part of it. You just constantly see life, and action and vibrance happening all the time, and you can throw a smile in any direction and get another one right back.”

And more: “You know, there’s such a great spirit here, and there’s an amazing amount of pride, I mean, the people that live and work here have an immense amount of pride for what they do and for everything that surrounds them, and so, I just always wanted to be a part of that, and capture that, and breathe more and and more life into what can normally be perceived as drab or ugly or falling apart, unworthy…so yeah, I was able to put more beauty into those sights and images.”

And so she has…We are so very pleased to have the “Alley Cat” series at Broadway Studios and Gallery this month.

Article by Anne Ramsaur

Note: Included below, are the artists statement and her bio. Her Facebook page is www.facebook.com/knoxalleycat where photos of her work can be seen and purchased. 

 

Artist Statement:

I remember being given an in-class assignment one day for a composition course I was taking. We were given 15 minutes to answer the question: ‘Can fiction be fact?’. When our time ended, we were polled for which side we argued for by a show of hands.  Out of 24 students, I was the only one to argue that fiction could indeed be fact.  My professor then began to tell a story of a high school reunion she had been dreading, due to the fear of seeing an old flame that broke her heart. She went. She saw him. They talked. And upon rehashing memories, she had realized that her mind had slowly made her out to be the victim. When in fact, she made the decision to end their relationship 20 years ago. The mind is a tricky thing.

That day stuck with me for years. It made me question what is real? What is truth? Is it what our minds convince us to be so? And if yes, does that mean there are as many truths about one subject as there are perceptions of it? Or is reality just some phantom entity that no one will ever completely grasp in this life? 

For example: our eyes are made up of rods and cones that enable us to depict light and motion. Humans have three different types of cone receptors: blue, green and red. The mantis shrimp, has sixteen types of cones receptors. They can see colors that don’t even exist in our understanding of spectrum. You can ask a person with regular eyesight, a mantis shrimp, and a person with total color blindness what color the sky is, and they’d all tell you their answer. So which one is real?

Regardless, perception is key. It is what makes us all unique.  We can choose to see the beauty in all things, or pick and choose via our own self-inflicted judgements. We choose love over fear. We choose forgiveness over resentment. We choose the objective mind over the subjective.  Or…not.

These works are my journey in seeing vivacity within the decay of the places we pass by every day: a Wabi-Sabi collection showing the beauty within that which is normally perceived as imperfect and incomplete.

Artist Bio:

Growing up on the south fork of Long Island, NY, Ziggie spent a lot of her time star gazing on beaches before she discovered her love for backstage theater. She majored in Stage Management and Technical Direction at North Carolina School of the Arts before making the journey over the mountains to wind up in Knoxville, TN. She has been a Knoxville resident now for 14 years. 

Photography has always been a passion in her life, but never considered utilizing it as an artistic release till she drifted away from the stage. She has shown works at 8 Shooters Studio before finding her current themed outlet. The Alley Cat series started over three years ago and has since been shown at Wells Fargo on Gay St, Urban Bar, Big Fatty’s Catering Kitchen, The Bearden Beer Market, and most recently at The Red Piano Lounge. 

She is an avid wanderer and promoter of downtown Knoxville businesses; always seeking ‘the next shot’. Within the last couple years, she has been given the wonderful opportunity of now having both her loves of artistic output in her life; in photography, and finding a home again in the theater. She currently keeps very busy shooting, framing, working at Knoxville’s first distillery; Knox Whiskey Works, and loading in touring performances for the Knoxville Stagehands Local Union 197.

End

 

Meet Hannah Harper, Our January Artist

A conversation with Hannah Harper

January, 2016

We begin the new year with a visit from the artist for our one-woman show, “Buoyancy,” this month. We hope those of you who have not seen her show will be inspired to make it by the end of this month. I think you will discover a world that invites imagination and exploration. In this instance, there is more than meets the eye.

And this comes from Maryville-born Hannah Harper, all of twenty three, who has managed to make an impressive start to a very promising career. Her rather unique vantage point comes from underwater, actually. In painting after painting, Harper shares her worlds, some in the bi-level story form, some totally immersed in the here and now.

A scuba diver, Hannah takes us below the surface to catch a swimmer in motion, or one in languid suspension…in green-toned, at times, blurry river water. The effect is plainly experiential, especially in the larger canvasses; a swimmer may be a bit larger than life-size, with a wonderful interplay of refracted light, shadow and reflection as noted in “Jill”, which you will see right off, as you first walk in the gallery. A strong arm reaches across the canvas in beautiful patterns of light, shielding her dark and silhouetted face. This is the kind of contrast and play with light you will see often.

Her father’s enthusiasm with the underwater spread to her and her sister. Hannah became certified as a scuba diver when she was twelve. While she says she has only snorkeled in the ocean, her scuba explorations have been to quarries, and mostly in rivers locally. Rivers, Harper says, have a different quality to them, often with cloudy water, and various shades of green.

Hannah’s finely-written “Artist Statement,” which you will also find posted here, discusses how water became an expression to her of “time and memory” and the subconscious, and the unknown. And the significance of water in her life seems to run deep, through the roots of her family, even to include her grandfather aboard a ship in the US Navy, during WWII.

In one painting, entitled “Surface Musings” the artist depicts herself touching the surface of the water while rings form at the tip of her finger. While, below, in a ‘bi-level’ view, one sees, and senses much depth, and indeed, the unexpected: a park bench, a stone path…in an underwater world. While she literally just touches the surface, this signifies the point where her journey began in creating her larger canvasses in “Buoyancy.”

Hannah was inspired by a YouTube video (her father shared with her) of Green Lake in Austria, a place where the lake disappears in winter, and becomes a park, with stone paths, and benches, then is flooded again each spring and summer. And you will see a park bench, or a stone path in several of her “bi-level” works.

In “Seclusion in Shallows” we could almost be looking at an aquatic Magritte, as two young men, immersed, sit upon lawn furniture, in casual repose. A quiet, mountain lake scene sits atop them, above the waterline providing the perspective of the present. The figures signify a memory in the artist’s life. In “Regression,” the same figures appear underwater while a cluster of stark white trees grows from below and out above the surface.

Imagine how Harper manages to photograph the two subjects who actually pose for her in a pool sitting in chairs! There are no bubbles flowing up to the surface, as you will see in her swimmer portraits. Perhaps this reminds us that these are moments of the artist’s past and not so much experiential, as her swimmers are.

Hannah comes from a “very creatively gifted family.” In addition to scuba diving, her father plays with the band “Pistol Creek Catch of the Day,” which performs often in East Tennessee venues. And her mother, an accomplished seamstress, has made upholstery bags professionally, knits, and has dabbled in painting. “My mother cursed me to be an artist…she told me at five years old that I would be one,” Hannah shares with a smile.

And her studies at East Tennessee have challenged her in ways that she needed, she says. Her professor at ETSU, Mira Gerard, would ask why water was such an important recurring theme in her work, and urged her to build a concept around it, to discover the significance. And, Harper has done just this, as evidenced by her body of work, involving water most always.

Harper’s lighting choices are interesting; in some paintings, a swimmer might seem deeper from the surface, and the effect is somewhat cosmic, while there are several with a very pronounced glowing source of light, (as in “Maggie” swimming with fish all about) and the light and swirls of water are integral to the picture. “The play of light and dark” are integral to her work. The last paintings in the exhibit form a triad, where you will notice these qualities.

Oil is her medium. And she says she tends to be sort of “stingy” with the paint, as it is costly. An artist who visited her studio once suggested she paint very quickly without sparing the paint. And the result was heavy patches of paint on “Selkie” (a play on the name of mythological seal women and “selfie”). But usually, painting is a slow process, using a series of layers, using a lot of Liquin, a medium to dry the the paint faster. She finds the process of painting “meditative” and thoughtful.

As our visit at Vienna Coffee ended, Hannah invited me to her studio nearby at Studio 212 in Maryville to see what she is currently creating. She shares a studio space with other artists, whom she finds fun and supportive. Hannah works as the pottery studio’s manager and, quite conveniently, finds time to work right there in her own space. While she is in transition, Hannah has chosen to make a painting of an imaginative collage she made in college, something “almost melodramatic” she describes. Picture a river full of candles, a woman in a field, and a tornado looming in the background!

She will bring her same imaginative, playful approach to a “teen painting” class she teaches at Studio 212 in February, she says. “It’s more interesting than a still life…you’re more invested in it…doing something you make.”

Hannah seems at once playful, and analytically in her approach to creativity. There is very much a quality of spontaneity in Hannah, of seizing the moment to consider a new idea. And when inspiration fails, she is pragmatic. “I’m a painter, I gotta paint,” she exclaims. She will find something to work on and maybe “something” will come of it or it will “turn into something else.”

Hannah Harper’s work speaks directly to the viewer. It appears mostly autobiographical, certainly in her bi-level story compositions. The river portraits are experiential, and quietly powerful that way.

“Buoyancy” is the perfect title for an exhibit that seems to share some of the artist’s soul, her passion for life in all its phases, and her reflections of the past. This is an artist to watch.

Note: I invite you to read the artist statement, as her words best describe her intentions:

Harper’s thesis, “Submersion”, also provides photos of her early work, and fascinating exploration of the meaning of water in her life and work. You will find it rich with folklore, references to Carl Jung, Shakespeare’s Ophelia, and Harper’s childhood memories and fears, which include her own versions of river monsters.

http://dc.etsu.edu/honors/199

Hannah will be showing much of her work again from “Buoyancy” at Lox Salon on First Friday this February.

This article written by Anne Ramsaur

Hannah Harper’s Studio in Maryville:

                                                                

Meet Our November Guest Artist, Sharon Popek

We are very happy to welcome Sharon Popek (pronounced with a long “0”) and her show entitled “Ground Cherries and Farm Images of East Tennessee. Sharon has the distinction of being our very first interview in our new blog, and she had to endure a chain of technical misfortunes, including computer malfunction, and my mishandling of two recording devices that failed us as well. In spite of it all, Sharon was completely gracious!

Just a week ago, Sharon and I met at an outside table at K Brew, just a block from Broadway Studios and Gallery. We shared a bit about her life as a photographer. It was fun to hear how she is striking out on a very individual path in her journey as an artist.

We are exhibiting two areas of Sharon’s recent work. I asked her how “ground cherries” came into her life. Like many of us, she was milling around the Farmer’s Market at Market Square one day, and “spotted these things that I had never seen before…”
Similar to tomatillos, ground cherries are known by some peculiar names here and about. “Ugly tomatoes” and “pichu berries” are a few Sharon has heard. She was attracted to their texture, the “little husks” and decided she would take home a small bagful for a photo shoot.

A recent show at the Tomato Head , featuring Popek’s “Ground Cherries” was aptly called “Wings of Fancy.” These cherry-size fruits wear a lacy husk, a wrapping that eventually grows away from their little round green bodies and spreads out like wings.

Popek fills a cut glass bowl full of ground cherries that look like elegantly wrapped candies, while she picks one, two, or more, and lines them up on a rough, painted wood railing with titles like “Three Wings Out” or “Just the Four of Us”. It seems she is able to capture their character, with obvious whimsy and humor. A single ground cherry is poetic. And the photos you will see are enhanced a little through the use of Topaz, a program we will mention again in a moment.

Photography began for Sharon in college, when she needed to choose an elective. Majoring first in history, then in art studio, Popek found her calling, it seems, after her first photography course. With her experimental nature, she smiles as she tells me, “I printed a lot on alternative surfaces; fabrics, wood, rock, whatever.”

“In college, (it was film) my teachers were very “what you see is what you get.” And because she is such a “huge history buff,” Popek would visit historic sites: homes, museums, wherever she could be inspired to take her camera. Eventually, when she thought to sell her work, she learned that she could not sell photos from historic places.
This, then, became a turning point. She realized that she needed to move from history to fancy and fantasy to pursue new avenues.

“I need to be creating my own scenes!” was her new mantra. With serendipity as her guide, she began to find subjects like ground cherries and cowboy boots, among others. And she has been exploring “Cosplay” fantasy characters, with people who assume a character identity with the purpose of dressing in costumes. And indeed, on her website, I noticed some characters depicted in very dark tones. “My work tends to be a little darker with subdued colors (vibrant colors, at times) vignette dark, black and white.”

For Popek, creating her own fantasy scenes has started with learning every step of the process. “It’s opened up a whole new world for me,” she says, and she is ready to make this a major project now. Her blog on sharonpopek.com, shares her thoughts and feelings as she goes through the process of fashioning costumes, finding models, and working with Topaz, making clouds appear…forming a mood, a feel, a story.

She plans to create images, portraits of the characters she writes about. I ask her if she thought this would lead to making films, video. She is certain that it will not, as she made the decision to make photography her visual arts medium.

There will be a sequel to “Ground Cherries.” Sharon is working on an intriguing series of “lantern photos,” using ground cherries, with a bit of fantasy light rather magically infused into the body of the fruits.

Sharon, like so many of us who make art, has a day job-as a photographer. And when I asked her who has inspired and perhaps guided her, she mentioned Charlie Brooks, with whom she works. Recently, he offered to let her use his own private studio and equipment for a  personal project. Mentors in the art world…it is always nice to hear about people like this.

Techies are going to ask about equipment. Her camera of choice is the Sony A7, mirrorless, which is fast  and allows for high resolution. This is the camera that Popek used for both the “Ground Cherries” series and the Farm Images of East Tennessee.”

Before our visit was over, Sharon invited me to walk to her car where she showed me a canvas print of one of her cowboy boot series, (which will be hanging in her show at Broadway). I had seen many of her prints on websites, but was taken aback at how a photo online simply does not not do justice to this work. The subject of ornate boots seems curious enough, but with special techniques the result is quite soft and magical. (While she uses Photoshop, she loves Topaz, a plug-in program which Popek likens to how one uses filters in a film camera). I cannot be anyone’s eyes reliably when it comes to art, so, of course I will suggest you see Sharon’s photos for yourself.

This is partly why art needs exposure. There is no substitute for live music either. It is experiential. Sharon Popek shoots a photo and then adds her “paint,” to create something quite surprising. We hope you will join us at Broadway Studios and Gallery for this innovative show.

Article by Anne Ramsaur